Cookies with Chickpeas

5 from 5 votes

Do you prefer to eat cookie dough straight from the bowl, or bake it first? Made with chickpeas and nutritious ingredients, this healthy protein cookie dough can be eaten two ways! Try the edible dough on its own, or bake it into chickpea cookies that are soft and chocolatey in the middle and deliciously golden on the outside! Perfect for snacking, they are vegan, nut-free, gluten-free and refined sugar free - and can be ready to eat in 20 minutes.

Prep Time5

Cook Time15

Total Time20

Course: baking, healthy

Cuisine: Australian

Servings:

Calories: 134kcal

Author: Andrea Geddes

Ingredients

1 ½ cans chickpeas One and a half 400 gram cans.
¼ cup tahini or sunflower butter. Peanut butter can also be used if you don't require nut free cookies.
2 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste.
¼ cup brown rice/rice malt syrup
1 tbsp coconut oil
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
⅔ cup chocolate baking chips ** Use dairy free chocolate to keep this recipe vegan. I use dark chocolate, but choose your favourite!

Instructions

Pre-heat the oven to 180 °C (356F) (fan forced). Line a large baking tray with baking paper.
Rinse the chickpeas in a sieve under cold water. Drain them and place them onto a paper towel to pat dry.
Place all of the ingredients, except the chocolate chips, in a food processor and blend for around 2 minutes until the mixture is smooth and completely combined. **If you want to eat the cookie dough raw and don't want to bake it, leave the baking powder out**
Fold in the chocolate chips.
Using a spoon, place spoonfuls of the mixture onto the baking tray/paper, and gently flatten into circular shapes. Leave space between each cookie, as they will spread slightly while baking.
Bake for around 15 minutes, or until the cookies are lightly browned on top. Remove from the oven and leave them on the tray for 5-10 minutes, before transferring to a wire rack to cool. Enjoy!

Notes

Chickpeas (garbanzo beans) – you will need 1 ½ cans (around 600 grams) of chickpeas to make these cookies. If you are cooking dry chickpeas, you’ll need about 2 ¼ cups. When blended, chickpeas make a thick paste that binds the ingredients together. They are also a great source of fibre and plant-based protein.
Tahini - is a paste made from sesame seeds. It comes either hulled, or unhulled. Unhulled tahini is more nutrient dense, but it is also more bitter and has a stronger taste. You can use either in this recipe, depending on your preference. It gives a lovely, nutty flavour to the cookies. It can be found in most supermarkets and health food stores. You can substitute tahini in this recipe for peanut butter (if you don’t need nut free cookies) or sunflower butter/paste.
The texture of these cookies is soft and gooey. Because they don’t have eggs or flour to bind them, they are also slightly crumbly and need to be handled gently. For this reason, smaller cookies are best, rather than making larger cookies.
Cool them on the tray before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.
Storage – these cookies can be stored at room temperature for up to 3 days in an airtight container. They can also be kept in the fridge for up to 5 days, or frozen for up to 3 months.
This recipe makes around 18 cookies, or the quantities can be multiplied to fill your freezer with easy lunchbox snacks.

Nutrition